


Profit... More or Less

by Lt_Cmdr_Scribbler



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Chapter 13 hype, F/M, I Blame Tumblr, I got myself super invested in this okay, Outlander!Mai'lynnda, Rare Pairings, Tumblr Prompt, i started writing this ages ago
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-08
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-09-06 19:51:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8766733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lt_Cmdr_Scribbler/pseuds/Lt_Cmdr_Scribbler
Summary: Or, The One Thing that Mai Regrets Doing While Under The Influence.Prompt: “I miss you. God, I do. And I can’t help but wonder if you miss me too.”Outlander!Mai'ynnda Zhang writes a letter to her long-lost lover, just to change things up. Naturally, the morning comes with hangovers, regrets,... and a face that she has mixed feelings about seeing again.





	

_To: Gault Rennow_

_From: Mai’lynnda_

_Gault-_

_I don’t even know if you’re still using this name, but it was worth a try. I’m drinking your swill again, the neon purple Devaronian special. I needed a break from this “Commander” shindig, and since I still can’t recollect whatever it was that I did the last time I got drunk off this stuff, I figured this was a good option. Hylo gave me a look when I asked for it, but didn’t say anything. It’s awkward enough with her here knowing my past with you and me knowing hers, so we don’t talk often._

_I’m not surprised that there isn’t a letter like this from you sitting in my inbox. You never were one for words, not like I was. Guess this is why I’m sitting here, writing this. I miss you. Stars, I do. And I can’t help but wonder if you miss me too._

_Yeesh, I sound like a damned love song. But hey, we enjoyed that kind of thing, back in the day. Back five years ago. I still can’t believe it’s been that long. I didn’t leave on purpose you know, so you can stop telling the galaxy about the lover who jilted you at the altar. Marr didn’t tell me we were going Emperor-hunting, but we got captured by the Eternal Empire anyway; I assume you’ve heard of them. I’m running an Alliance now. Commander of the Alliance, the Outlander, that’s me. Between you and me, I’d take “Champion of the Great Hunt” over those titles any day. ~~Maybe because that title came with your company.~~ _

_Love,_

_Mai’lynnda_

* * *

“So who’s this contact you’ve got?” asked Mai’lynnda as the lift rumbled up to the platforms, the ambient noise being a great way to avoid uncomfortable silence.

Hylo Visz snorted, the sound of amusement lacking its usual mirth. “Oh, you’ll know him when you see him. The bastard’s impossible to forget.”

Raising an eyebrow at her unusual behavior, Mai’lynnda resolved herself to patience. Exiting the lift, Hylo led her to the cantina, and towards the back, where the sabacc tables resided. Theron and Lana were sitting with their backs to the wall, facing Mai and Hylo, but the third player had their back toward them, and Mai could only faintly discern something that looked like the butt of a sniper rifle.

Lana smiled thinly and leaned back, more relaxed than she had been in months. “Well, this has been an interesting diversion, but I think it’s time to wrap things up. I call.”

Theron, on the other hand, shook his head. “I know a Sith who’s pleased with herself when I see one. I fold.”

Finally, the third person spoke, and Mai’s legs stumbled slightly. _He still sounds so carefree, the bugger._ “So soon?” He asked, a touch too innocent to be true. “Must be quite a hand, let’s see it.”

“I know that voice,” Mai murmured, just below a whisper, and Hylo nodded.

“I know you do; that’s why I brought you to see him.”

The cards were revealed on the table, and Lana went so quickly from relaxed and triumphant to displeased and irritated that Mai had to blink a few times and catch up. “That’s impossible! You discarded every chance you got, and you never locked a card the whole round! The odds of you winning were astronomical. You cheated!”

Gault Rennow lounged in his chair, smug and satisfied as always. “Yeah, even if I did, you sure the old boss of Sith Intelligence wants to admit that some shifty alien got the better of her?”

Lana, of course, had no reply to that, and stormed off, with Theron close behind. Mai immediately took Lana’s vacated seat and calmly aimed one of her  twin Starforged blasters at Gault’s head. The Devaronian’s head, she corrected herself. It wouldn't do to make assumptions about the lying bastard. Her hand wasn’t shaking, and Mai was proud of that, but she felt like her bright blue eyes might overflow with tears any moment. The Devaronian raised his hands to the level of his eyes in surrender, like he’d been expecting this, but Mai could clearly read the question in his golden eyes.

“What was our first scheme together?” Her voice was more quiet and low than she had planned, and it sounded rough from lack of use and lack of sleep.

He didn’t miss a beat. “It was the most fun I’d had in years, though remarkably small-time, especially compared to the now. I’d bookmarked a group of Arconas settling on Tatooine, and we told them that this salt shipment was special tablets to help organisms retain water. When we called the main Arcona, you posed as my lovely female security detail and business partner. How’s that for memory?”

Mai smirked at him, and shot. He flinched nearly bad enough to get hit, though the smoldering hole in the leather was exactly where Mai had aimed her blaster. Gault’s disorientation was enough distraction for Mai to grab his martini glass, which contained a familiar neon purple liquid.

Grinning, Hylo sat down next to Mai. “Now that’s one way to greet somebody,” the Miralian snarked.

“Ha ha,” deadpanned Gault, watching Mai all the while. She took a sip from the glass, then made a face at it.

“Hasn’t gotten any better since the last time I drank it,” she remarked with forced off-hand casualty.

“And when was that? Before or after you sent that letter?” Gault retorted, and he looked surprised at himself immediately after the words left his mouth.

Ignoring the flush in her face, Mai tried to keep her expression as stoic and cold as possible. “You actually read that? I didn’t think you would.”

“Of course I read it,” Gault scoffed with his usual bravado. “Letters from the grave don’t appear that often, after all.”

 _Slippery bastard didn’t reveal any sentimentality, as per frakkin’ usual_ Mai muttered mentally. She plunked the martini glass on the sabacc table and reclined like she didn’t have a care in the world, regarding Gault with the most detachment she could muster. “Hylo says you’ve got something good. Care to tell the whole group, Gault?”

His crooked grin was like a familiar punch in the gut. “You ever heard of the Gilded Star…?”

* * *

“Why the hell did I think this would be a good idea?” Mai’lynnda shouted over the blaster fire.

“You and Hylo trust me for some reason,” replied Gault with a shrug. “It seems to be infectious.”

“You do grow on people, like fungus,” Vette explained, wrinkling her nose playfully.

“And yet I seem to have an infection of sassy Twi’lek women with blasters,” he retorted, sniping the head off of a Skytrooper.

“It's the eyes,” replied Mai, ducking behind cover in the same instant that Gault did. “Twi’lek don't have yellow eyes, so you're naturally interesting.”

Gault grinned, sharp and smug. “That's the most complementary thing you've said to me in five years, Mai.”

Mai turned around the corner for a volley of shots, then ducked behind her cover again, breathless and smiling. “That's the first time you've called me ‘Mai’ in five years,” she murmured.

“Didn't exactly have the opportunity for it earlier, did I?” he replied, an unreadable expression coming over his face. He broke eye contact, and let off another few rounds before taking Mai’s wrist and running down the platform.

“Okay, so… remember Plan Cresh?” His eyes darts at the upcoming railing.

“You never actually got to Plan Cresh, Gault!” barked Mai.

Gault increased speed even as a wide grin grew across his face. “Turns out, Plan Cresh is… jump!”

Running right alongside him, Mai’s protest never made it out of her mouth, as she jumped on autopilot, and found the air rushing out of her lungs. Her eyes squeezed shut and arms spread eagle, she wasn’t expecting the arm that snaked around her midsection and pulled her upright. Thanks to Gault, Mai landed on the shuttle without a scratch, but the adrenaline in her system had other thoughts.

Mai’lynnda slapped him, and while he looked dazed, pressed her lips to his before jumping into the shuttle’s open hatch. Gault shook his head, and grinned sharply before following suit.

“I knew there was something about you he wasn’t telling me!” Vette crowed as she also jumped through the hatch.

Standing in their getaway ship, Mai’s veins burned with adrenaline, and she shucked her gauntlets before siding her hands up to cup the back of Gault’s head. His smooth red skin was warm to the touch, and Mai delighted in feeling the shiver that ran down Gault’s spine. His breath hitched, and all of a sudden Mai was being kissed within an inch of her life. A flush of heat began to climb up her neck and her lekku quivered. Five years was a long time to go without physical touch, Mai’lynnda was realising, especially when all of her time was spend in a thick suit of armour.

Unfortunately for Gault and Mai, oxygen was a requirement of life. Mai tucked her head under Gault’s sharp chin and breathed in deeply, smiling from ear to ear for the first time in a long time.

“Does that mean all is forgiven, my dear?” Gault murmured, tracing one of Mai’s winding lekku tatts with one finger.

She snorted, amused. “That’s a lot to forgive all at once,” she quipped.

“I just made you fabulously rich, Mai’lynnda. Are we at least working on it?” Mai didn’t know when Gault had finally perfected his pleading-eyes look, but it was strangely persuasive, even with the broken horn.

“We’re working on it,” she agreed.

From the cockpit, Hylo scoffed. “Can you work on it later? We need to jump to hyperspace.”

Mai flinched at the sound of the smuggler’s voice, having completely forgotten where they were. “Oh, right, yeah. Getting strapped in now.”

If Mai and Gault held hands all the way back to Odessen, just for physical closeness, well. Gault paid off Vette for her silence, so no one would know but them.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, completely unrepentant in regards to the strangeness of my Gault/Mai fics. I only make some of the rules, you know.


End file.
